Nottoway Supervisors to endorse regional water system; Microsoft files permit to disturb wetlands for data center
One preview of a meeting today and information about an environmental permit
The five-member Board of Supervisors in Nottoway County will meet at 7 p.m. today at the Nottoway County General District Courtroom at 328 W. Courthouse Road in Nottoway. (agenda packet)
You can also watch this meeting on YouTube.
There will be a public hearing for a budget adjustment for the Piedmont Alternative School. According to the staff report, the school system is now the fiduciary agent for the institution which used to be managed by the Amelia-Nottoway Technical Center. Supervisors need to approve an appropriation of $567,091 in pass-through funds to cover the cost of operations.
There’s also a report from County Administrator Ted Costin on the use of $55,250 in American Rescue Plan Act to cover the cost for the Town of Burkeville for engineering for utility lines to the future Nottoway County Animal Shelter.
“A commitment was also expressed to support a contribution to the Blackstone Recreational Complex in the amount of $50,000 for a scoreboard and concession stand improvements,” Costin wrote in an April 10 memo to Supervisors.
Nottoway County has already spent $1.1 million in ARPA funds on broadband expansion and Costin recommends holding the $284,068.50 from round 1 in reserve in case more funding is needed.
In round two, Nottoway County received another $1,479,318.50 and has committed the following funds:
$200,000 for a tanker truck for the Town of Crewe
$10,000 for the aforementioned utility extension
$11,607 for a new ramp for disabled people visiting the Commissioner of Revenue’s office
$775,600 for broadband expansion
$75,000 is reserved for a homeless housing project shelter for STEPS
There’s a remainder of $407,061.50 in round 2. Possible uses outlined in Costin’s report include $200,000 for a public safety training center, $200,000 for a new roof for the Crewe Library, and $100,000 for a ramp for access to the Emergency Operations Center.
There is a resolution to endorse the development of a regional public water system that would involve the Sandy River Reservoir in Prince Edward County.
Under new business, the county will award a contract for a health benefits broker.
Microsoft seeks new data center in Mecklenburg County
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is reviewing an application from Microsoft to disturb wetlands in Mecklenburg County near Bluestone Creek.
“Microsoft proposes to construct a new data center facility to house servers used in cloud-based computing,” reads the public notice for the permit. “This facility will be constructed as an addition to Microsoft’s established southern Virginia Regional Network Group, which has outgrown current capacity faster than anticipated.”
This data center would be on a nearly 369 acre property west of Skipwith Road and north of Butler Farm Road. There would be six buildings and about 5,000 linear feet of wetland would be affected.
“The applicant has designed their campus layout to minimize impacts to wetlands and waters while still achieving their project purpose and plans to offset their unavoidable impacts with compensatory mitigation,” the public notice continues.
According to the publication Data Center Dynamics, Microsoft already has an existing campus in Boydton about ten miles away.
A comment period is open through May 12.
